Professor Helmut Schühlen: When diabetes affects the heart

Heart attacks and diabetes are common conditions in Germany. However, few people are aware of the close connection between cardiac problems and diabetes mellitus type 2.

Professor Helmut Schühlen, who is Senior Consultant in the Department for Internal Medicine at the Vivantes Auguste-Viktoria Hospital and has 20 years' experience in this field, explains the complexity of diabetes and circulatory disorders affecting the heart: “Diabetes encourages hardening of the walls of blood vessels and is a very serious risk factor. If it affects the blood vessels to the heart, the cardiac muscle no longer receives an adequate supply of blood, which increases the risk of a heart attack.” Unfortunately, this occurs in diabetes patients all too often; more than 75 per cent of diabetics suffer a heart attack or stroke.

People with diabetes mellitus type 2 also frequently face other risk factors such as high blood pressure.

Dyslipidemia and obesity increase the risk of a heart attack and other vascular problems like strokes.

Professor Schühlen's treatment facility, which has had approval from the German Diabetes Society for many years, diagnoses vascular diseases and circulatory disorders affecting the heart in diabetic patients at an early stage and pays careful attention to specific aspects of the medication selected for diabetics with circulatory disorders.

Patients with hardened blood vessels, particularly if the arteries around the heart are affected, and who also have a significant risk factor such as diabetes, can be given interventional cardiology treatment. This is medical treatment with a minimised risk, i.e. it does not involve an operation or a direct incision into the body. In cardiology, diagnostics and major forms of treatment are often performed on patients who remain awake and responsive throughout the procedure, which is far less invasive and means they only have to stay in hospital for a very short period.

The expertise of Professor Schühlen and his team in two medical specialisms – cardiology and diabetology – is rarely found in this specific combination. It does, however, meet the growing demand for this kind of treatment sought by German and international patients.

The department at the Vivantes Auguste-Viktoria Hospital has gained an international reputation for its combined expertise in diabetology and cardiology and for the comprehensive inpatient care that it offers. It provides the full range of diagnostics and treatment for acute and chronic illnesses in the field of internal medicine. The department's location and high standard of equipment are also ideal, especially for dealing with emergency cases, due to its proximity to the accident & emergency department, conservative intensive care unit, chest pain unit, and cardiac catheterisation laboratory providing 24-hour emergency care.